Generally, a ubiquitous computing environment refers to an environment comprising various apparatuses or systems dynamically united. It is important to form a foundation in which various apparatuses or systems efficiently operate and provide services for users.
The ubiquitous computing environment can be defined as “the environment in which various and portable systems are dynamically harmonized and interact with each other.” That is, it is possible that the subsystems of the computing environment dynamically come in and go out and their cooperation relationship can change dynamically. Research is needed about the methodology for efficiently providing the interaction in such a dynamically changing environment.
In the middleware for the ubiquitous computing environment, including the previously well-known Aura (Garlan, D., Siewiorek, D., Smailagic, A., Steenkiste, P., “Project Aura: Toward Distraction-Free Pervasive Computing,” IEEE Pervasive Computing, Vol. 1, No. 2, April-June 2002, pp. 22-31), and Gaia (Manuel Roman, Christopher K. Hess, Renato Cerqueira, Anand Ranganathan, Roy H. Campbell, and Klara Nahrstedt, “A Middleware Infrastructure to Enable Active Spaces,” IEEE Pervasive Computing, Vol. 1, No. 4, October-December 2002, pp. 74-83), etc., CORBA (Fintan Bolton, Pure Corba, SAMS, July 2001) is used as the methodology for the system interaction.
Since CORBA basically includes the functional elements for both object management and group management in the distributed environment, it may be applied to the ubiquitous computing environment in which independent systems operate.
However, since diversity or portability of systems is frequently demanded in a ubiquitous computing environment than in an existing distributed environment, development of suitable methodology is additionally required.
For example, CORBA has taken a role as an intermediary for connecting different objects, and has been used as the methodology for distinguishing object instances. While minimizing additional corrections to the existing systems, it is used as technology operating with new integrated systems. In the meantime, an adaptor is used as an option for constructing an intelligent home network or connecting apparatuses using different middleware.
Conventional adaptors, however, put emphasis on providing necessary functions depending on an independent case fitting to the object to be operated with each other, but are not designed with the systematic structure. That is, when a new kind of apparatus or middleware is connected, there is burden to re-design the adaptors.